w3c / w3c/FileAPI

Should some files provide an alt?

Open
#215 8 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

TPAC2025
Dominant language
HTML
Stars
118
Forks
52
Avg merge
9d 16h
Merged PRs (30d)
1

Description

Web Share API images have optional title, but seem to be missing alt.

shareButton.addEventListener("click", async () => {
  const file = new File(data, "some.png", { type: "image/png" });
  try {
    await navigator.share({
      title: "Example File",
      files: [file],
      alt: "Marcos??? 🧐"  // accessible text alternative for the image, equivalent to HTML alt attr
    });
  } catch (err) {
    console.error("Share failed:", err.message);
  }
});

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reviewing the Web Share API's file-sharing options and the File API issue context. Done means reaching a clear decision on whether shared images should carry an accessible text alternative and recording the resulting specification direction.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript
Domain
accessibility, api
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.